WALLINGFORD - Despite the threat of rain, people still flocked to the grounds of Mark T. Sheehan High School, James H. Moran Middle School and Highland School Friday night to watch the town's annual Fourth of July fireworks celebration, many toting umbrellas in addition to the usual flying discs, portable grills, lawn chairs and soccer balls.

"I've been at the (Parks and Recreation Department) all day, and the phone's been ringing off the hook," said Michelle Bjorkman, the town's superintendent of recreation. "People have been calling to ask if they're still going on."

Bjorkman said she has worked the town's fireworks display for the past 15 years, but that she couldn't remember another instance when it was so late in the day and the possibility of shooting off the fireworks was still in doubt.

"We're set to go," said Lt. Alan Zakrzewski, who was supervising the public safety portion of the event for the Police Department. "We may go a little earlier if it's dark enough out, but it's possible that a front could be moving in around that time, and then we'd try to push them back. We'll do whatever we can to get them off."

Typically, Telstar Display Fireworks, a New Hampshire-based pyrotechnic company, shoots off about 1,300 firework shells as part of the display. This year's display was scheduled to begin shortly after 9:15 p.m., with no makeup date scheduled in the event of rain.

And those fireworks almost didn't get lit at all this year.

The $31,000 it would cost the town in materials and overtime expenses to host the display was excised from the budget proposed by Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr., but the Town Council voted to restore the funding - taking it from savings the town reaped on its property and casualty insurance - on May 12, when it approved a budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

"We fought for it, the mayor took it out of our budget, but they found that money somehow," said Lorraine Devaney, chairwoman of the town's Public Celebrations Committee, which helped organize the event. "So, really, how could you cancel it at the last minute just because of the rain? It's really such a family event. People can view it from all over town."

But Chris Pelkey, who typically attends the event and was on hand Friday selling children's toys and games at a stall set up along Hope Hill Road, said he thought attendance was down this year because of the possibility of rain.

"There's usually more people here," Pelkey said. "Usually by 6:30 or 7 p.m. the hill's all covered up."

Devaney estimated that the event can draw upwards of 10,000, but conceded at 7:30 p.m. that the crowd looked a little thin this year.

"I think people are waiting to see if the weather's going to hold," she said.

Ernest Childers, a vice president of the Meriden-Wallingford branch of the NAACP and a town resident, didn't care that fewer people than usual had turned out - because that meant he and his family had no trouble getting their usual spot, almost directly under the knoll next to Moran Middle School where the fireworks are shot off.

"People like to cling to their spots at this thing," Childers said. "And, believe me, this is the best fireworks presentation around, because you're right here under them. You see them as well as feel them."

dmoran@record-journal.com
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